International Women’s Day offers an opportunity to reflect on progress for women in the workplace and the uneven advancement to the highest leadership roles, despite research showing similar leadership potential between men and women.
Women now hold 11% of CEO positions at Fortune 500 companies, according to the 2025 Fortune 500 ranking released in June 2025. A record 55 women lead these major US firms, up from 52 in both 2023 and 2024, marking the first time representation has crossed the 10% threshold in recent years.
Research from Hogan Assessments, a global leader in workplace personality science and leadership assessment, finds that men and women in executive roles demonstrate comparable personality traits linked to leadership effectiveness.
“When we analyze decades of personality and performance data, we don’t see meaningful differences between men and women on the factors that truly predict leadership success,” said Allison Howell, CEO of Hogan Assessments. “What we do see is that many organisations still rely on outdated ideas of potential that don’t reflect the evidence.”
The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2024 found that women held about 31.7% of senior leadership roles worldwide based on LinkedIn data, even as many regions approach parity in educational attainment. The Forum’s 2025 report shows representation in top roles has slowed to 28.8%, while women make up 41.2% of the broader workforce.
In Europe, earlier data from the European Institute for Gender Equality indicated women held around 34% of senior management roles in the EU, but CEO representation in the largest listed companies often remained below 10%.
Leadership potential in many organisations is still associated with visible traits such as confidence, dominance, or self-promotion. Hogan’s research suggests these characteristics are often overvalued, while predictors of long-term success, including judgment, self-regulation, learning ability, and motivational alignment, receive less emphasis.
Barriers frequently emerge early in careers, when informal judgments shape hiring, promotion, sponsorship, and access to development opportunities.
The McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org Women in the Workplace 2023 report found that for every 100 men promoted to manager, only 87 women advanced. The 2025 edition shows the gap continuing, with 93 women promoted for every 100 men.
“Much of the inequality we see at senior levels takes shape well before leadership titles are on the table,” Howell noted. “Those early moments quietly determine who gains visibility, support, and access to leadership-building opportunities.”
A common explanation for underrepresentation is an ambition gap. Hogan’s data disputes this, indicating that women’s motivation remains strong but is influenced by organisational context.
“Women aren’t less ambitious than men,” Howell said. “What changes is how people respond to environments where advancement criteria feel unclear or inconsistent. Stepping back is often a strategic choice, not a lack of aspiration.”
Research from McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org confirms that career aspirations are similar early on, but structural barriers contribute to declining representation at successive leadership stages.
According to McKinsey’s 2023 Diversity Matters Even More research, companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams are 39% more likely to outperform financially than those in the bottom quartile.
For Hogan Assessments, International Women’s Day is a moment for reflection rather than quick fixes. Howell encourages organisations to reassess assumptions about leadership and urges women to understand and leverage their strengths.
“As women, we’re still too often assessed through expectations that were never designed with us in mind,” Howell said. “Science shows those distinctions don’t hold up. Knowing how you lead, what motivates you, and where you’re most effective can be a powerful source of agency — even when systems are slow to change.”
Leadership, she added, does not require fitting a single mould. “It requires staying visible, staying engaged, and leading authentically in ways that align with who you are — even when recognition comes later than it should.”